Rachelle Mulder

In today’s increasingly polarized educational landscape, curiosity is a powerful tool for connection and understanding. This course invites educators to explore how fostering curiosity can transform classroom dynamics, strengthen relationships, and build inclusive school cultures.

Grounded in the work of Mónica Guzmán and her book I Never Thought of It That Way, this course equips participants with practical strategies to:

Listen deeply and engage across differences

Model and facilitate respectful, open conversations

Navigate challenging dynamics with students, colleagues, and families

Through reflection, practice, and application, educators will gain tools to bridge divides, foster civil discourse, and create more compassionate, connected learning environments. This course is designed for PK–12 teachers, counselors, instructional coaches, and school leaders seeking to strengthen their impact and cultivate inclusive communities.

Do you want to feel more fulfilled, successful and joyful at work? Do you feel depleted energetically and overwhelmed by what is being asked and expected of you as an educator? Do you have the energy necessary to tap into your creativity, productivity, and optimism needed for excellent teaching and learning? Working with Elena Aguilar’s book, Onward, you will cultivate your emotional resilience to help you thrive as an educator.

Today's educators have been trained to teach opposition and defiant students by giving them rewards as they see them finally do the desired behavior. Studies show this is not working in most schools, and behaviors are escalating. The author of Conscious Discipline will give you the knowledge needed to understand why.

The notion of the “comfort zone” has been in the cultural lexicon for quite a long time. However, not many people talk about what lies outside the comfort zone. While we might recognize that, by definition, discomfort is outside of it, we don’t necessarily understand all the nuances that can be present with discomfort. In this course, you will dive deeply into a metaphorical “map” that helps to define and develop discomfort so that it is useful, nuanced, and not just an unknown sea.

It's February, known for Black History Month, and we reintroduce to our students Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Maya Angelou, John Lewis, and other notable African Americans that have transformed our history. This course will look beyond Black History Month and focus on unsung heroes and sheroes that don't always make history books but have contributed to America in many profound ways. Using the required text, Four Hundred Souls, you will be engaged in the history of African Americans from 1619 to the present time through 90 diverse authors' powerful short stories, personal vignettes, essays, and poems. We will examine microaggressions and ever-changing voting rights legislation. In addition, you will have the opportunity to examine a plethora of websites, videos, and resources, as well as to adapt and create your lesson plans to integrate Black History into a year-long, interdisciplinary curriculum.

Generation Z comprises students born since 1995 into a digital world made up of the Internet and cell phones. They are enmeshed in social media and criticized for lacking social skills. However, they are the future and we need to teach them in a manner that will lead to their success. To do that, learn how to best meet the unique needs of Generation Z and how to engage them in the K-12 classroom. Learn about what they think, where they are going and how they may change the world.

Today's students differ greatly from each other and their learning needs vary more dramatically than ever! These differences are wide ranging and are being identified earlier. Such classroom disparities require all educators to think differently about teaching and learning; educators have been differentiating for ages. This class is intended to move you from where you are now (beginner, proficient, advanced) in the process of differentiation, to the next level essential for success.

Understand and deal more effectively with a range of student disorders, such as Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Attachment Disorders, and Self Injurious Behaviors. You'll learn signs and recognition aspects as well as effective strategies for helping children to be successful at school.

This course provides authoritative and reality-based best practices in classroom management from some of our best educational researchers, including Robert Marzano, Jana Marzano and Debra Pickering. It clarifies both what to do, and how to do it, with ample examples and action steps.